Pope Meets Sex Abuse Victims Every Friday

Pope Francis says "regularly" meets with a group of  sexual abuse survivors on Fridays, the Catholic news website CruxNow.com reports.

The pontiff adds it is important for him to hear their stories because "what they have been through is so hard, they are destroyed."

Francis also calls clerical sex abuse "the greatest desolation that the Church is undergoing," one that reveals both the Church’s fragility as well as its "hypocrisy."

Greg Burke, director of the Vatican Press Office, Greg Burke, said Francis "listens to the victims and seeks to help them to heal the grave wounds caused by the abuse they’ve suffered.

"The meetings take place with the greatest discretion out of respect for the victims and their suffering."

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